With rapid growth of the mobile communication technology, as well as increasing communication demands from users, a variety of messaging services appear. The messaging services include messaging services based on standard protocols such as Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), Instant Messaging and Presence Service (IMPS), SIP based SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Instant Message, SIP Instant Message and Presence Leveraging Extensions (SIMPLE) Instant Message, Converged IP Message (CPM) and so forth; and some messaging services based on proprietary protocols such as Fetion service, mobile instant communication service, mobile MSN and so forth.
Currently, a majority of users of messaging services are using conventional messaging services, for example, SMS, MMS, etc. When a new messaging service, e.g. the SIP SIMPLE IM or the CPM, is deployed, interworking between the new messaging service and the conventional messaging service should be taken into consideration to facilitate the users. In other words, a protocol conversion is required to be performed on a message based on the new messaging service before the message is transmitted to the conventional messaging service system. The user using the conventional messaging service may then receive the message.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a first conventional method for message interworking. As shown in FIG. 1, the method includes steps as follows.
At step 100, a sender terminal sends a message to a recipient terminal which uses a different protocol type. Firstly, the protocol used in the recipient terminal is carried in the message, and then the message is sent to a sender network device, e.g. a sender messaging server. At step 101, the sender network device determines, based on the protocol which is indicated in the message and used in the recipient terminal, that message interworking is required, and therefore sends the message to an Interworking Gateway (IW-GW). At step 102, after the IW-GW performs the protocol conversion on the message (i.e. signaling conversion, or signaling and data format conversion), the message is then sent, using the protocol of the recipient, to a recipient network device (e.g. a recipient messaging server). At step 103, the converted message is sent to the recipient terminal by the recipient network device.
As can be seen from the above solution, a different protocol type used in the recipient terminal needs to be indicated in the message when the message is sent from the sender terminal to the recipient terminal which uses the different protocol type. If the sender terminal can not learn the protocol type used in the recipient terminal, the message cannot be sent to the recipient network device, and thus to the recipient terminal.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a second conventional method for message interworking. In the procedure of the method, the recipient corresponds to a plurality of recipient terminals using different types of protocols, e.g. a recipient terminal and a mobile terminal using an instant communication service. As shown in FIG. 2, the method includes steps as follows.
At step 200, a sender terminal sends a message to a sender network device, e.g. a sender messaging server, where the message is to be sent to a recipient. At step 201, the sender network device routes the message to a recipient network device A which uses a protocol of the same type as the sender terminal. At step 202, when the recipient network device A determines that a recipient terminal A is off-line, it forwards the message to an IW-GW based on a forwarding configuration in the recipient terminal A, e.g. forwards the message to a recipient terminal B which uses a protocol of another type at the same recipient. At step 203, after a protocol conversion performed on the message by the IW-GW, the message is sent to the recipient network device B corresponding to the recipient terminal B, e.g. a recipient messaging server. At step 204, the recipient network device B forwards the converted message to the recipient terminal B, where the recipient terminal B is a recipient terminal using a protocol of another type according to the forwarding configuration in the recipient terminal A.
For example, the sender terminal using the instant communication service sends a message to the recipient terminal which uses the instant communication service as well. Meanwhile, a forwarding configuration is included in the recipient network configurations, e.g. to forward the message to a mobile terminal of the recipient. When an instant communication service server detects that the recipient terminal is off-line upon receipt of the message, it forwards the message to the IW-GW based on the forwarding configuration in the recipient terminal. The message is converted into a short message by the IW-GW, and is then forwarded to the mobile terminal of the recipient.
In the above solution, the message can be forwarded to another recipient terminal of the recipient. However, the forwarding procedure is performed based on the configuration in the recipient network. If there is no forwarding configuration in the recipient network, the message cannot be sent to the recipient network device B, and thus to the recipient terminal. Meanwhile, if the recipient network does not support the protocol type of the sender network, or, if the recipient does not subscribe to the service in use by the sender terminal, the message cannot be sent to the recipient network device B either.
In summary, when the SIP message is being sent from the sender terminal, the conventional methods for message interworking cannot guarantee that the SIP message be sent to a non-SIP messaging system corresponding to the recipient terminal, e.g. the Short Message Service (SMS) system, the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) system, the mailing system or the IMPS system.